Kimihini
by Lady Maiya
Summary: Prior to the time Orochimaru came, there was already an existing Otogakure. Unfortunately, they were destroyed by the creepy bastard himself. This is the story of those who survived. Please read and review!
1. Clip Clap

**Clip. Clap. Clip. Clap. Clip. Clap.**

"Woah, boy!" Came a young man's voice, followed by a horse's loud neigh.

The proud and beautiful black steed stood still, allowing its driver, who is clad in a gray robe, to put down the pink novel he was reading and gaze in admiration at the sight before him. The scenery, so bright and green, looked as if it was taken out of a beautiful painting. "Very well suited to the name of the village which resides in it," The young man said, chuckling to himself.

The said village lay not too far ahead, sitting comfortably under the monumental mountain upon which the village's four great leaders were carved intricately. The young man smiled. "Looks like our little master got it right once again." He then turned back to address one of the passengers from inside the caravan. "We're here."

He was then answered by a young female's voice. "Alright, let's go."

"As you wish, Oujiro-sama."

There was a crack of a whip, and was once more followed by a horse's loud neigh.

**Clip. Clap. Clip. Clap. Clip. Clap.**

* * *

**Beloved Author Maiya-sama**

**Proudly Presents**

**KIMIHINI**

**KIta, MInami, HIgashi, NIshi**

_**North, South, East, West**_

**(A Naruto Fanfiction)**

**DISCLAIMER: Only the original characters and the plot of this fanfiction belong to me. Naruto and its characters do not, as they are the property of the great Kishimoto Masashi-sensei.  
**

* * *

** Author's Notes:**

Hi everyone! Wow, it's been a loooooooong time since I last wrote a fanfic. But hey, two days of Naruto marathon can do that to you. In any case, this is somewhat of a prelude to the story which I had in mind. And here are some of things that I am going to explain:

1. As implied in the anime, Orochimaru is the one who created and built the Hidden Sound Village in the Rice Field Country to further his plans for the destruction of Konoha. As such, this story is a "What if" to that statement, the question being, "What if there already exists a real Hidden Sound Village prior to the arrival of Orochimaru?"

2. Bear in mind that there are a lot of original characters in this story. So if you're not that comfortable in seeing characters which are not found in either the manga or the anime, then you are free to ignore this story.

3. I will be introducing the characters in the next chapter, so please be patient.

4. In case of confusion regarding the title, **KIMIHINI **is actually an abbreviation for its real title: **Kita, Minami, Higashi, Nishi** which means **North, South, East, West. **Why it was named that way would be revealed in the succeeding chapters.

Well, that's all I could think of for now.

Till next time!


	2. Surprise!

**I**

**Surprise! The Arrival of the White Caravan!**

During the recent days, the once lively village encountered a lot of onerous trials: it was attacked in the middle of an important event, betrayed by an ally, and its great leader killed. In addition, one of its prized genins had gone after the very man who caused its almost complete destruction. Despite that, the villagers and their ninjas, under the leadership of their new leader, the Fifth Hokage, worked hand in hand to restore the former glory of the village that is Konohagakure.

Of course, that is all the more reason for the village to stay on its guard against unforeseen circumstances. All the more reason for the a three-man team of ninjas to be assigned to the task of patrolling the grounds.

Unfortunately, that concept was not easily understood by a certain firey ninja (although that is frequently the case).

"Oi Shikamaru! I don't understand, why are we patrolling? Shouldn't we go after that creepy bastard Orochimaru and get Sasuke back?"

The newly inaugurated Chuunin sighed exasperatedly. "Naruto. How many times do I have to tell you that it's the Hokage-sama's orders?" The other team member, a chubby boy, only chewed noisily the chips in his mouth in agreement.

Naruto stopped. "But, but...! That bastard might do horrible things to Sasuke...or worse!" He faced Shikamaru, holding his arms out in wild gestures. "And, and what if--"

"I know that, stupid!" Shikamaru snapped, shutting the blond boy up. Upon seeing the hurt look at the other boy's eyes, he shook his head. "I know." He repeated, more calmly this time.

Although the young Chuunin didn't show it, he could understand very well the situation in which Naruto was in. The relationship between Uzamaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke was rather complex, as it bordered between love and hate. Sasuke would call the blond boy names like "Dobe", and Naruto would shoot back with his own "Pretty Boy" insults. When they sparred with each other, the spar always intensified, always amounting to the point that they would almost kill each other. And he had an idea that during the last time they met, they almost **DID** kill each other. Yet, despite all the sparring, all the bickering, all the insulting, Shikamaru knew that they understood each other perfectly. And if one of them should get into a dangerous situation, the other would do everything in his power to help the other. In other words, even though they considered each other to be their own greatest rival, Naruto and Sasuke would remain to be the best of friends.

Yes, Nara Shikamaru understood that perfectly because he had a best friend too. Who was currently busy eating his eighth bag of chips for the day, he might add. He massaged his temple and sighed once more. _This is just so...troublesome. But hey, I'm the leader here, so it's my job to give some kind of a pep talk to this idiot here or he might get even more depressed._ He then looked back up at the blonde and placed a reassuring hand upon his shoulder. "Naruto," He began. "You know very well how small our forces are at the moment. Half of our ninjas were wiped out when..." He fought back a growing lump in his throat, thinking about that incident still affected him. "...Orochimaru attacked our village. And Neji and the others are still recuperating in the hospital."

Another lump was growing again at his throat, as he remembered the time he berated himself for almost getting his squad...his comrades...dead. He had wanted to quit becoming a Chuunin at that time, but his father's words (as well as the timely arrival of the news that each squad member would be alright) stopped him from doing so, and subsequently strengthen his resolve to become a better leader for his friends.

He stepped back and faced his friend (yes, that's what he considers the blonde now). "What I am saying is, I think it is better for us to wait until our forces have fully recovered. Not all of us are like you who gets healed quickly, you know. Even Chouji here still has a hard time moving his body freely."

Once more, the chubby ninja, chewed his chips in agreement.

"And to be honest, I think," Shikamaru added. "That going after Orochimaru with our current skills is not enough. I am sorry to say this, but Naruto, you are still weak. As am I. As is Chouji, Neji, and the others. We need to train more, and become stronger, so that the chances of retrieving Sasuke would be higher than it initially was. I am sure Hokage-sama also knows this, which is why we should trust her and follow whatever she has to say."

He noticed that the blond was staring at him blankly. For a moment, Shikamaru did not know what to do. He could handle a bickering Naruto, an angry Naruto, or even a fighting Naruto, but not a Naruto who is as ambiguous as the one who stood before him. _He might do otherwise_, He thought, _Which is going to be very troublesome._

Just then, the said boy laughed, pointing at him. "Ahahahahaha!"

An anger vein popped out of Shikamaru's temple. "What the hell's your problem now, Naruto?"

"Serious..." Naruto's laugh had subsided into chuckles. "It's funny to see the lazy ass Shikamaru be so serious!"

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "Hmph. Laugh all you want, idiot."

"I know I am one," The blond said suddenly. Though it was a name called to him by many, he never once acknowledged that he was one. Except this time. "I know that we need to protect the village, and that we need to become stronger. And yet, I would still push ourselves to do something we aren't ready for..."

The two other boys stared at Naruto in surprise. Chouji had even stopped chewing. "Naruto...?" Shikamaru said uncertainly.

"I'm sorry," Naruto scratched the back of his head, chuckling in embarrassment. He then looked up at them. "It's just that...I can't stand doing nothing while Sasuke is...out there." He then straightened as he felt the pony-tailed boy's hands upon his shoulder.

"Don't worry," Shikamaru said, smirking slightly. "We're going to get Sasuke back. I promise."

"Ooomph! (crunch, crunch!)" Chouji chewed in.

The blond looked from one boy to another, smiling gratefully. "Thank you, Shikamaru...Chouji."

Shikamaru's smirk widened, and he couldn't help but add, "Bah, it's still troublesome."

"Meh, everything's just troublesome for you, you lazy ass! And--"

"**SSHH!**" Chouji hissed suddenly. He had stopped eating, and his eyes had opened and were looking straight ahead. "Someone's coming!"

The two boys immediately changed their stances into action, their shinobi senses in full flare. The three boys ran swiftly towards the direction Chouji was looking at. Right before they reached a footpath, they paused and hid behind some trees.

**Clip. Clap. Clip. Clap. Clip. Clap.**

Just then, a black horse trotted up the path, pulling behind it a dazzling white caravan. It was driven by a person, most likely a male, clad in a dull gray cloak.

"Who's that?" Chouji whispered.

Shikamaru narrowed his eyes. "Who knows? But no doubt he's definitely not from around here."

"Then we'll just have to **MAKE** him introduce himself, eh?" Naruto said, smirking. He raised his hands and readied himself for a Kage Bunshin.

"Don't!" The Chuunin hissed to his friend. The said friend stopped in surprise, but he did not lower his hands. Shikamaru motioned with his head towards the caravan. "See that thing over there? He's probably got friends in there. And we don't know how many they are."

"Wait," Chouji interrupted. "What's that?"

**That**, which the chubby boy had referred to, was in reality a series of sounds. Some were high pitched, and some went low. If one were to integrate these sounds together, one would think that the cloaked person was...

"Singing?" Naruto gasped, his bright blue eyes widening in surprise. "Is he...singing?"

As the caravan moved closer and the sounds became louder, indeed the three boys found that the cloaked person was singing, as well as strumming along with the guitar that was upon his lap.

It was horrible, however.

"Untie the **PAAAAIIIN**, untie the **HEEEAARRRTTT**, untie the **SSSHHHHAAADDOOOWWWWW...**"

"Hold the **BREAAATHHH**, run through the **DAAARKNNNEESSSS.**...Feeling **GRIEF** and **DREAMING** will never end..."

"...**ON THE WAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!**" The cloaked person tilted his head up slightly, shouting into the sky. As he did, his hood pulled down, revealing the long moss green hair and almond-shaped eyes of a man who looked to be about twenty.

The three poor ninjas from behind the trees covered their ears tightly, though that was really to no avail.

"I wanna **ROCKS**! In the heart **ROCKS**!"

"Damn it," Shikamaru cursed, closing his eyes and pushing his hands on his ears with more force. _How can we get to him at this rate?_

"Tsuyoshi no **BAKA**!" An angered female voice sounded from within the caravan, and a few seconds later a large pan hit the back of the cloaked man's head with a loud **'BAM!**' "Cut out that awful singing! Are you trying to kill us!"

The man, Tsuyoshi, turned around and poked his head slightly inside the caravan. And, as much as the three boy's couldn't believe it, the man was whining.

"Awwwww, that's mean Oujiro-sama! And I was singing with all my heart too!"

"Then sing with your mouth closed!" Cried the unknown female from inside the caravan.

Eh?" Tsuyoshi's tangerine tinted eyes blinked, and scratched the back of his head in confusion. "How can I sing with my mouth closed?"

"You **MORON**!" Another pan flew from inside the caravan, and a couple of voices crying out "Oujiro-sama, calm down!" and "Oh dear, there goes our last good one" from within it as well. The said pan hit the man's forehead hard, forcing him to be thrown back with his guitar. His feet shifted quickly, and with a willful shift in his balance, he landed on the ground on his feet. He was about to go back up the caravan again, but he suddenly felt an unknown force stop him from doing so.

Tsuyoshi shifted his eyes to look up at the caravan, and saw that it, too, was stopped by the same force which stopped him. He narrowed his eyes slightly. _Shadow binding, huh?_

"Who are you?"

The green-haired man shifted his eyes to see that the question came from a pony-tailed boy coming out of one of the trees. Two other boys, a fat one and a blond one with strange whisker-like markings upon his cheeks, followed after him. He shrugged, well, as much as his bound body could allow. "I'll tell you, if you release me."

"Hrmph," The blond boy snorted. "Like hell he will, right Shikamaru?"

The young Chuunin did not answer the boy with words, but with actions as he stood still, holding the intruder and the caravan's shadows with his own.

"I didn't think so," Tsuyoshi said. Then he smirked.

Before the boys could react to this, a figure, also clad in the same dull gray cloak, emerged swiftly out of the caravan. Landing in front of Tsuyoshi, the figure raised up what seemed to be a wire string that was only around a foot long with both of his hands, and brushed it upon the shadows on the ground.

Much to the boys' shock, even more so for Shikamaru, the shadow was cut, enabling Tsuyoshi to jump freely and the horse to move.

"What!" Shikamaru gasped. His shadow was cut? More importantly, how was that person able to bring himself out of his technique?

"Kage Bunshin--"

Shikamaru immediately turned towards the blond boy, and shouted, "Naruto, don't!"

"--no jutsu!" His comrade's voice falling on deaf ears, around a twenty Naruto clones appeared and attacked the two cloaked figures at once.

Tsuyoshi rushed forward and placed himself in front of the other figure, did three hand signals and placed his hand upon his guitar. The said musical instrument glowed, and, pointing its neck towards the clones, began firing off bits of chakra as though they were bullets firing from a gun.

The chakra bullets hit most of the Naruto clones, but there were still around ten left, and they had leaped out of the bullets range towards the unsuspecting other cloaked figure.

Or so Naruto thought.

The cloaked figure leaped back just as Naruto delivered a punch. Same thing with the second, third, and fourth Naruto.

Chouji could no longer stand hanging around. Keeping his unfinished bag of chips in a safe place no one really knows, he then did his own technique. "Baika no Jutsu! Meat Tank!" The size of his body multiplied, and he began to roll himself with increasing speed towards the caravan. "Roll! Roll! Roll! Roll!"

The rolling genin was about to reach the caravan when he was suddenly blocked with using a staff by a **THIRD** cloaked figure. Of course, the boy was not about to lose, and thus he increased the strength and speed of his rolling. Immediately, the cloaked figure had no choice but to jump out of the way, allowing the boy to roll again.

However, as the cloaked figure was in the air, he swung his staff swiftly. And, if one looked closer, a dart can be seen shooting out of the staff's hollow part, making its way speedily towards Chouji and consequently embedding itself on the boy's body. The cloaked figure lifted up his hand and positioned his forefinger and middle finger together in a hand signal, and whispered a technique. As soon as the whisper finished, the rolling boy suddenly stopped in place.

As for the other unknown figure, he had pulled out his footlong string and was charging towards the other Narutos. To the untrained eye, it seemed as though he was only brushing past against each of the Narutos, but in reality, he was ramming the wire string against the bodies, literally splitting the Narutos in halves, quarters, or even eighths. The two clones, as well as Naruto himself, caught on to the danger of the wire and leapt out of the way. The figure stopped charging, but he still held up the wire with his hands.

"So he's using that for close range attacks huh..." Naruto said, panting slightly. Then the sides of lips turned up into a smirk. "If that's the case, then I'll have to..." He and his two clones then started charging towards the figure again.

One of the clones pulled on fast and aimed a kick towards the figure, who consequently dodged. The second tried to land a punch, but it was dodged as well. He then raised up the string.

Immediately, the real Naruto's eyes brightened with flare upon seeing the string. "There!" He then jumped up in the air and threw a kunai straight towards the string. "The only way to get rid of it is to cut it!" He grinned triumphantly to himself as he noticed that the figure was unaware of the kunai that was heading straight towards the string.

But the smirk was immediately wiped off when **ANOTHER** cloaked figure leaped up and hit the kunai away from its intended target. As the figure landed on the ground, Naruto's bright blue eyes widened in shock. This figure was a whole lot shorter than he was, perhaps he was of the same height as Konohamaru. What was even more scandalous was that he was holding a bokken, of all weapons. "**WHAT!** Is that a kid!" Naruto cried out loud. "And with a **BOKKEN** too!"

The cloaked figure with the string chuckled, then held out his weapon again, ready to attack. He straightened his stance, and lifted up his arms.

Naruto clasped his hands together, ready for another round of techniques. "Kage Bunshin---"

Suddenly the cloaked figure folded his arms and placed the tip of his fingers at the top of his head, looking very much like a "McDonald's" sign.

Tsuyoshi and the other cloaked figures gasped in fear and worry while Naruto and Chouji, who was poking his head out of his rolled up self, turned their attention towards their leader.

"Good job, Shikamaru!" Naruto cried, grinning triumphantly.

"Hn." Shikamaru smirked. "It's troublesome waiting for an opening like that, but it worked at least." He then started to walk towards the cloaked figure, who in turn, walked towards him.

"But what about..." Naruto said, looking at the other cloak-clad figures.

"Don't worry about them," Shikamaru said, continuing to walk. "This guy seems to be an important person to them. They wouldn't dare do anything that could jeopardize his safety." He then stopped, coming face to face with the cloaked figure. Even with this close range, he still couldn't make out the face of this person. Well, only one way to find out...

Quick as a flash of lightning, the young genius released the shadow bind, grabbed the person's wrist and pinned his back to a tree. "Who are you! What are you doing here! Who sent you!"

The figure remained silent. Though the young Chuunin was close to the figure now, he still couldn't make out his face because of the large hood.

"You--" Shikamaru began. However, he suddenly heard a faint 'whoosh' from behind him, and he dodged to the side just in time for a kunai to fly past his head and wedge itself in between the figure's hood and cheek. Upon glancing slightly to his side, he found that it was the green-haired guy who did it.

"Oujiro-sama!" Tsuyoshi cried. "Now's your chance!"

Upon realizing that the boy's hold upon his wrist has loosened, the figure swiftly leapt sideways, away from the boy. That move, however, caused the figure's hood to tear apart, since part of it was pinned by the kunai. As such, the hood fell as soon as she landed upon the ground on her knees, revealing...

...a young girl with long, silvery-blue hair tied up in a high ponytail. It wasn't supposed to be much of a surprise, since there are a lot of outstanding female ninjas including the Fifth Hokage herself, but to encounter a girl who had a guy's name was something out of the ordinary.

And yet what was even stranger was the bright blue cloth which covered the girl's eyes. Was she...blind?

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

Hi everyone! No reviews as yet, but that's to be expected since I haven't really elaborated on anything to capture anyone's interest yet. But I sure do hope this first chapter does! And even with that, I did see some hits, and that's enough to keep me going (along with my wild imagination and weird humor, of course). Well, since you are reading a Naruto fanfiction, I am pretty sure you are familiar with most of the things here like the meaning of Konohagakure, dobe, etc. Oh, and just a little trivia...you know the song that guy with the green hair, Tsuyoshi, is singing? It's the English translation of opening song of the first season of the Naruto anime, entitled "**ROCKS**" and is sung by the group **Hound Dog**. And for those of you who are unfamiliar on what the bokken is, it is a sword usually used for sword training. This is why Naruto was aghast upon seeing this (and of course, meeting up with a shinobi who was shorter than he is).

In any case, I hope you will enjoy reading this chapter.

Well, that's all for today.

Till the next installment!


End file.
